Cisco today said it would offer its virtual switch users technology
to get around VMware's recent elimination of support for third party
virtual switches such as Cisco's Nexus 1000V.VMware in March announced
that going forward it would no longer support third party virtual switch
(vSwitch) programs
Switches
and that customers should just work with VMware's vSphere products.It
was a strategic decision for VMware who has lead the charge for
virtualizing servers and switching, but one not highly regarded by Cisco
and others who have ties into virtual switching world like HPE and IBM.
For customers of Cisco, HPE and IBM virtual switches, the decision will
likely force them off those packages when the next version of vSphere
arrives, perhaps late in 2018, experts say.
The situation began
with a blog post detailing the new approach VMware wrote: Moving
forward, VMware will have a single virtual switch strategy that focuses
on two sets of native virtual switch offerings VMware vSphere Standard
Switch and vSphere Distributed Switch for VMware vSphere, and the Open
virtual switch (OVS). This strategy is about investing in the priorities
of our customers and simplifying the platform to create the best, most
secure experience possible. By using the native virtual switch on the
platform, customers simplify their IT landscape by reducing their
upgrade times, streamline their support, deploy new features more
quickly, and prepare themselves for the next wave of change agents.
VMware recommends migrating from third party distributed vSwitches
including Cisco Nexus 1000V, Cisco VM-FEX, HPE 5900v and IBM DVS 5000v
to vSphere Distributed Switch.
In response to that change, Cisco
says: We have been working on a platform-independent solution to bring
choice back and to free customers from being locked into the VMWare-only
virtual switching option. This solution will provide customers with a
high level of consistency and control, extending beyond on-premises
VMware vSphere environments. This solution will also provide a migration
path forward for current AVS and Nexus 1000v customers when they
upgrade to a vSphere version that does not have the 3rd party vSwitch
API. Cisco will not leave our customers behind, Frank Palumbo, Cisco
senior vice president of Global Data Center/Virtualization &
Enterprise Networking sales wrote in a blog.
Exactly what that
technology is or how it would be implemented was not clear and as of
this writing Cisco has not responded to questions.Palumbo continued:
Last month, VMware notified customers of its intention to remove the 3rd
Party virtual switch APIs in Update 2 of vSphere 6.5. These APIs allow
customers to choose a virtual switch to best fit their unique network
and data center requirements. This includes Cisco's portfolio of AVS,
Nexus 1000v, or VM-FEX products, the HPE 5900E, or the IBM DVS
5000v.Instead, VMware has chosen to close the APIs and the open
ecosystem to steer customers to its virtual networking products only.
Cisco has deployed virtual switch solutions in thousands of customer
networks worldwide. We regret that VMware has chosen to impose such a
significant operational burden with challenging timelines for so many
customers.
